HDTV or HD ready TV? What is better in the long run? (1 Viewer)

[Derek B]

I am interested in buying a High Defintion capable TV. I wanna spend around $3,000.00. Which kind of TV should I choose, a HDTV with the decoder built in or by a HD ready TV with the seperate decoder? I don't know what the advantages or disadvantages are. Please advise, I want to get a TV that will be beneficial for at least the next 10 years.

 

[Jeff Keene]

I chose an HD Monitor (HD-ready), because the main use for the TV right now is DVDs. Rather than spend the money for a built-in tuner, I decided to wait until there is enough content to compell me to buy the separate decoder. The idea is that the display technolgy won't improve as fast as the decoder technology (not sure if this is the way it will play out, but it is my best guess).

Plus, since I have Dish Network, the HD receiver will provide decoding for me. I'm waiting for an HD receiver with a hard drive.

This is just my thinking.

 

[Derek B]

If your monitor is HD ready, does that mean that you can view High Definition from your DVD player without having a decoder?

 

[ChrisMatson]

I would definitely suggest getting one without a tuner for future upgrades. I would also buy one with DVI/Firewire.

 

[Derek B]

If I get one with out a tuner would I have to get a cable box in order to view cable tv?

When we are talking about a tuner is that different than a HD decoder?

 

[Scott McVicker]

If you were to get digital cable, I believe right now they do not have a box that intergrates the HD decoder and your cable box, so you would have two separate boxes. As far as dish tv goes, I do know that they have some intergrated versions of those that incorporate both the tv signal and the HD decoding. I have an HD ready set and chose to go with just the dish box as of now. I don't think there is enough content out there to fork over the extra money. I spent about 3000 grand for the tv and decided to get a nice progressive scan dvd player since I mostly watch movies, instead of going for the decoder box.

Scott

 

[Jeff Keene]

If I get one with out a tuner would I have to get a cable box in order to view cable tv?

If I understand the question correctly, then the answer is no. These (HD-Ready) TVs for the most part DO have a built in NTSC (regular TV) tuner, just not an HD tuner. This will allow you to watch regular cable TV without a box. Now if you're talking pay-channels or HD cable, then at least a cable box will be needed.

 

[Marc Rochkind]

A couple of additions to Jeff's answers:

1. Yes, technically DVD is NTSC, but an HD-ready TV is still very useful for DVDs, as such TVs also have both 480p input and line doublers, and either makes a tremendous improvement over NTSC for DVD inputs.

2. The answer about cable is true for analog cable. Digital cable will require a box.

Also, I didn't read everything in the thread so this may have been said already, but my understanding is that with DirecTV (don't know about Dish), if you want HDTV, the tuner will come in the cable box, and any tuner in the TV would be unused, and therefore a waste of money.

 

[Jeff Keene]

What Marc said.